Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-07-30

worm Will be welcome IN the blessed SUM-
SHINE, the beautiful emblem of Immortality.
! In the apple-seed even you will find, if you
| examine it with a powerful glass, the rudi-
Llents OF future tree. The massive trunk,
4 the widespread branches, the downward
| piercing roots with thousand fbers, all
| appear in clear and well-defned outlines
to the eye of science
The gentle rains, the genial atmosphere,
the gladdening sunshine and the fertile
! SOIL do not change the nature of the seed
or endow it with any new properties; they
only warm it and feed ii, and supply to it
| the conditions of its development; but the
process of assimilation is its own. Its
growth into a tree is the result of its own
mysterious vitality. 1t takes its nourish-
ment from the ground or inhales it from
the air, and grows from within outwards.
1t only needs that the soil be enriched and
cultivated, and the dead branches and ca
PRECIOUS sprouts be trimmed away; all the
rest it does itself, clothing itself in its gor-
geous array of green leaves, shedding fra
GRANGE from its opening blossoms as from a
thousand swinging censers, and in the
autumn scattering its yellow fruit upon
frosty grass, like apples of gold in pictures
of silver.
The history of the tree is not unlike any
one OF these young graduates who hear me-
Ihe best college OF the country, the most
accomplished instructors that ever graced
Professors chair, can only furnish you,
as students, with the materials for your de-
yelopment If you appropriate them to
yourselves, you will grow up like trees
planted by the rivers of waters. Should
you be too indolent to chew and digest
your food, no human ingenuity can con-
vert your shrunken muscles and feeble in
tellects into stalwart manhood. Life is
before you" but =" the gods have placed
sweat In the pathway to excellence The
hlc labor and the hoe opus of Virgil are in
scrlbed upon every human undertaking !;
yet, labor is honorable; it is only the per-
formance of it in ignorance and darkness
that is disgrace and crime
The only well educated man, in the
proper sense of the term, is the self-edu-
Gated man, and every difficulty we con-
quer, be it hard problem in mathematics
or a crisis in business, gives acumen and
power to the intellect
We are to-day inheriting the achieve
ments OF past generations. But he is
thrlftless son who does not improve upon
his estate, and if we have taken from our
predecessors we ought to bequeath to those
who come after US. The present is better
than the past. 1t is our duty to see to it
that the future shall be better than the
present.
1t would be shame on the nineteenth
century to boast of its attainments, some
of which have been bestowed upon it. and
do nothing to make the twentieth century
still richer in knowledge and virtue We
therefore, think it only reasonable to ask
you. young ladies and young gentlemen,
to do something to make the world of
tomorrow better than the world Of to-day.
during the past years you have en-
joyed all the educational privileges
which this city bestows upon
It's children. These privileges have
been wide spread as the progressive
methods OF the present day could devise
with the resources at command. We are
sure that you have had good, capable, con-
sclentious, pains-taking teachers, who have
done their full part towards creating in you
a lively and intelligent interest in what
ever tends to develop and ennoble character
and ut you for the duties, responsibilities
and struggles of active, earnest lives With
their approval you have come here tonight
TO receive not only the congratulations of
your friends, but the highest honors
IN the gift of the Sacramento School
Department = High School Diplomas.
We bid you God-speed, and ask YOU to
fix IN your mind some high and worthy
aim, that the world shall be better for your
having lived. Remember that e from
him to whom much is given shall much
be required" Strive for noble
manhood and noble womanhood,
honor the city which tonight de-
lights to honor you, and may the elements
OF good which have been inculcated dur
lug these school days, the love of truth,
the high aspirations, the worthy aims, the
beauty of self-sacriice and the wideawake
intelligence, which have been daily offered
you by your teachers, as the vital elements
of heart and mind, serve to build about
you bulwark which shall ward off the
blows of misfortune, and enable you, with
the help of the Great Master, to fight the
battles of life to victorious end. Life is
before you; let all the ends you aim at be
your countrys. Gods and truths.